Linde has recently been added to the list of hundreds of western companies suspected of paying bribes to the former government of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
A united nation report found that more than 2,200 companies from some 40 countries are suspected of secretly acting together with Saddam Hussein’s regime to cheat the oil-for-food programme in Iraq of $1.8bn.
The weekly magazine Focus said German prosecutors were seeking evidence of payments from when Linde sought business under the United Nation Oil-for-Food programme. Such payments could be illegal under German foreign-trade law.
Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, a Munich prosecutor said in a report for the weekly focus that Linde’s offices in Munich were searched in November as part of the investigation, but refused to divulge any other details.
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